


Future One

by fencingfox



Series: This October Night [7]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fictober 2019, Holodecks/Holosuites, Inktober 2019, Kinktober 2019, Parent-Child Relationship, Parenthood, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-27 07:11:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20944376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fencingfox/pseuds/fencingfox
Summary: The Liiteva have monitored the GreatshipVoyagerfor five years, undetected. That's long enough to realize mistakes and long enough to grow curious about a certain Future One.





	Future One

**Author's Note:**

> They're back!
> 
> quv qurgh is (sweet) + (bean) = (sweet bean)  
1 half-turn = 2.5 minutes
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own _Lion King_, _Peter Pan_ or _Star Trek: Voyager_. Also, I have no idea if Tom's the oldest. Just go with it. c:

* * *

**| "No, and that’s final." | isolation | snuggly | enchanted |**

* * *

"Miral! No, and that’s final." B'Elanna snatches the engineering kit from her young daughter's hands. She is glad she caught her before she opened it and pulled out something dangerous. Most of the tools in an engineering kit can hurt a person. Her anger hides the concern she feels. "Go to your room." Miral pouts. 

"Mommy—" B'Elanna doesn't let Miral continue. 

"Go." B'Elanna growls and leans closer in the way she remembers her mother doing to her. It worked very well on her then. "To your room. You're grounded." Miral huffs and crosses her arms, but B'Elanna is thankful that she does indeed go to her room. On a crowded starship—more crowded now that a lot of couples were having children—Miral's room is just a sectioned off corner of the living room. They'd moved the dining table over to give her bed space. The room is small, barely longer than her bed. They can just fit another identical bed beside it without any space between the two beds. That isn't here nor there. B'Elanna wants to wait a little before getting pregnant again. Though perhaps having a younger sibling to torture would mean Miral wouldn't torture her as much. She'll have to ask Tom about that one. He has siblings. Once Miral disappears behind the divider, she stalks to her and Tom's bedroom and sets the engineering kit on top of her dresser against the mirror where hopefully Miral wouldn't find it. She places a towel over it for good measure. 

"She get to the kit again?" 

"Yes," B'Elanna half-growls, half-screams. She lowers her volume, aware that Miral is only a few meters away. "She's going to get herself hurt." This time, the concern does bleed into her voice. She feels a little uncomfortable with that, but dismisses the worry when she realizes she is reasonably concerned about her daughter and talking to her husband. Tom pats the bed beside him. He looks absolutely domestic. There is a terminal on his lap where he is typing the next installment of a family-friendly Captain Proton no doubt. A stray PADD with notes rests on his nightstand and his eyes are a little big behind the new reading glasses. He said he plans to get them fixed properly in a few weeks, siting that he wants to be sure they won't continue getting worse. He said he didn't want to go under the proverbial knife twice. 

B'Elanna sighs and climbs onto the bed with Tom over the covers. She leans against him, enjoying his warmth and solid arm. It is one of the few parts of him that hadn't changed in the five years since her pregnancy. He'd put on a few pounds around the middle—sympathy weight the Doctor called it—and since B'Elanna's metabolism hardly slows with age, he shows the extra weight she so easily burns off. She knows it bothers him, but she told him she liked him soft as he is. In truth, she'll like him no matter what. He sets the terminal on the nightstand and wraps his arms around her, pulling her a little into his lap. He kisses the top of her head and she closes her eyes to his affection. It feels good. 

"I'd think you'd be _happy_ she wants to play engineer." 

"I am. I just wish she wouldn't play it with my tools. They're dangerous." 

"Danger, ha. I laugh in the face of danger." B'Elanna smirks. She recognizes the line from one of the movies Tom had them all watch together. It was something from his childhood that he wanted Miral to have. Sometimes they quoted movies back and forth with each other instead of holding an actual conversation. It drove her mad, but it made them laugh she so endured. 

"Well, I don't. And you shouldn't either when it concerns our daughter." He squeezes her. 

"Mmm. I never get tired of hearing that." 

"Hearing what?" 

"You saying, 'our daughter'." 

"You're changing the subject." 

"I am. Sorry." He kisses the top of her head apologetically. "Why don't you just take the kit back to engineering?" She makes a face. 

"I'm not going to do that. If I were my mother, I'd probably hurt Miral with every one of those tools so she would stay away." Tom doesn't say anything for a moment and B'Elanna worries he has finally decided that a half-Klingon isn't for him. She squeezes his torso to get his attention and to keep him from leaving. 

"But you aren't your mother." 

"No." She sighs. "But I'm beginning to understand why she did the things she did." He rubs her arm affectionately. 

"You miss her." It isn't a question. 

"Yeah." She feels her throat constrict. She _does_ miss her mother. She wants to show her Miral with pride. She wants her mother to beam at how well Miral knows Klingon and Klingon history at only five. The Klingon is her doing. The Klingon history is Tom's. He'd shown an interest in front of her one day and now any time Tom wants to do a little research, he brings Miral along. She can admit to herself that she wants a hug from her mother for a job well done. It'll probably never happen, but that doesn't make her crave it any less. 

"I miss mine too." She wonders if Tom's mother is the hugging type. She expects so, given how affectionate Tom is. "You know, I'm the oldest." She does know. "Maybe that's why Pops was always so hard on me. That and being his only son. But Mom always just wanted me happy. When I was in the Academy, she called _every week_ to quiz me on my girlfriends. She wanted to know if I'd met anyone that seemed like _the one_." He chuckles. "I think she was a little anxious for grandchildren. Miral's probably her first and she hasn't even met her." He sounds a little sad. At twelve years on this journey, it seems very likely they'll never see their families again. B'Elanna squeezes her husband. 

"Your sisters, did they make you bother your mother any less?" He catches the subject change and rolls with it. 

"Yeah, why?" 

"No reason." She hopes that closes the matter. 

"B'Elanna Torres Paris. You aren't asking to have another baby with me are you?" 

"Maybe," she responds cryptically. "If it'll keep Miral out of my hair, I'm all for it." She decides to tease him. "But actually I was hoping to have a baby with Harry instead." He guffaws. 

"You wouldn't." 

"No," she reassures him with a kiss. "Somehow I don't think Harry would agree to that." 

"He's got his hands pretty full with Kes's quadruplets." B'Elanna nods sagely. She has no idea how the couple manages to find space for all six of them—let alone peace of mind. "Maybe Chakotay then?" 

"Ha! That crush shipped and sailed years ago. Besides, do you want to be the one to explain to the Captain why my baby looks like her boyfriend?" Tom shakes his head. "I didn't think so." They cuddle in companionable silence for a moment before Tom sighs. 

"Well, she's been in there long enough. I suppose we should make sure she knows we still love her." 

"Right," B'Elanna leans away from Tom to let him get up. "You go first. She's probably still mad at me." Tom sets his glasses on the nightstand and then pecks B'Elanna on the lips before getting up. 

"You're probably right. I'll go loosen her up for you." 

"Thanks. I love you." 

"I love you too." 

**=/\=**

Miral hears knocking on her door, well, her room walls actually. She doesn't have a door, not really. It is just a blanket hanging from the ceiling. She doesn't like her parents barging in when she's playing enchanted forest so she asked for a door. They gave her a curtain that she liked. It's fun to rush out in the mornings and push it aside. 

"Go away." 

"It's Daddy. Can I _pleeeease_ come in." Miral smiles even though she doesn't want to. He's quoting the _Lion King_ at her. She tries to work her expression back into a pout before answering. 

"Fine." Daddy slides the curtain and steps inside. He turns and sits down on the bed beside her holding his arms out. 

"C'mere." Miral scoots off her bed and crawls into Daddy's lap. He buries his nose in her hair. "Do you understand why Mommy punished you?" Miral feels uneasy. She doesn't like this part. She prefers Mommy's yelling. When Daddy gets all, 'what do you think you did wrong' it makes her realize that she'd always known she shouldn't be doing what she was doing. She feels sick about disappointing him and plays with Daddy's fingers in her lap. 

"I tried to play with Mommy's engineering tools." 

"And that's wrong because..." 

"It's wrong because they can hurt me." Daddy squeezes her. 

"Good girl." She twists to look up at him when he stops squeezing her. 

"But Daddy, I wasn't gonna hurt myself." She searches his eyes for understanding. She is pleased to see it. If he'd caught her with the kit, he probably wouldn't have grounded her. 

"Mommy doesn't want to risk it. She loves you very much. She'd be very sad if you got hurt." Miral uses her best grown-up voice to answer. 

"The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it." Daddy kisses her forehead when she finishes. 

"You won't learn anything if you aren't around anymore, quv qurgh," he says softly almost like he is sad to say it. Her eyes widen. 

"Those tools can hurt me that much?" He smiles teasingly and leans back. 

"You seem to forget that you're very little yet." 

"I'm not that little." She grumbles. That makes Daddy laugh. She wonders why; she isn't joking. 

"Little enough." He pauses. "Is it safe to send Mommy in?" 

"Think happy thoughts," she quotes _Peter Pan_ in a steady tone. He laughs loudly at that. 

"Oh, Miral. Has anyone ever told you that you're hilarious?" She smiles. 

"You do Daddy. All the time." 

"Well don't you forget it. Here," he pats the side of her leg, "hop up." Miral gets out of his lap and watches him go. She sits back on her bed and waits for Mommy. Mommy never came however. Before she blinks, she's in her room. After she blinks she's in a big bright room on a couch. There is a woman in front of her with lots of face ridges and long ears. 

"Hi Miral." 

"How do you know my name?" 

"We know your Mommy and Daddy. They visited us a few years ago and they're friends with our Leader One." 

"What's the magic word?" She thinks for sure that will stump the kind looking lady. She looks nice enough but they must have transported her off of _Voyager_ and that scares her a little. 

**=/\=**

"Hakuna Matata." Miral smiles and stands to investigate the room. 

"Okay, we can be friends. What's your name? Where am I?" 

"I am Tviiloa. You're on our holodeck which we've made to look like one of our testing facilities. We have some tests for you if you would permit them, Miral." Tviiloa bows to the young Future One. By their calculations, she is of the age to be tested for aptitude even if her _parents_—the word is awkward to think even—only celebrated five turns with her. Her superiors are curious about how she'll test. In their monitoring of the Greatship _Voyager_, they discovered that the Treasured One and the Demon One/Healer had spawned this Future One together. The Treasured One and the Demon One/Healer spent many hours in each other's arms, a concept nearly foreign to the Liiteva. Upon reporting their find, their mission was changed to monitor the family at a safe distance. That's why they brought Tviiloa on board even though no Carriers or Future Ones need her. 

"What sort of tests?" The Future One finds the ball that is part of the fifth test to throw into the air. She catches it with ease. 

"They are not too difficult, Miral." It is odd to call her by her given name. Normally the right is reserved for high ranking command officials. To call a Future One by her given name is completely unsettling. However, they'd learned that the Greatship _Voyager_ followed different naming rituals. Leader One Qviilok had been wrong to give the Demon One/Healer the made up role of Heated One. The Treasured One calls the Demon One/Healer _husband_, _loDnal_, or _bangwI'_. Others of their Greatship refer to him as Tom, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Paris, Paris, or B'Elanna's husband. The Demon One/Healer refers to the Treasured One as _wife_ or _Be'_. Again, others refer to her as B'Elanna, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Torres, Torres, or Tom's wife. The many names are confusing for this Test Maker. But Tviiloa wants to be sure to keep this Future One at ease. 

"Okay. But we can stop if I don't want to anymore?" Tviiloa purses her lips. A Future One of their own would never suggest such an idea. Well, perhaps a Future Demon One might. This Future One may not be as exciting as she seems. 

"No. We cannot. Once the tests begins, we must finish them to completion. There are seven tests. Each will take a maximum of..." she pauses to make the necessary conversion, "ten minutes." Even their concept of time is puzzling. 

"Ten minutes isn't that long." She sets the ball back precisely where she'd picked it up from. A Future Demon One wouldn't have been so precise. "How do we start?" 

"You start by sitting down. I have a game for you to play." 

"I thought we were doing tests?" 

"It is a test within a game." 

"Okay." She sits down at a desk. Tviiloa retrieves a deck of cards and lays them out one at a time face down in a four by seven grid. She explains the game is a matching game which she will time Miral on. She has to find all the matches on the board, but not every card has a match. Only two cards can be flipped at a time. If they match, they are set aside. If not, they are flipped back over. When Tviiloa tells her to begin, the Future One starts by turning all the cards sideways. 

"What are you doing?" The Future One stops and looks up. 

"Is this allowed?" She can't come up with a way that it violates a rule. 

"Yes." The Future One looks down to continue turning. 

"I'm making it easier to remember which cards I flipped already." Tviiloa nods as she settles on a nearby desk to watch. That is a clever way to do so. She enters the observation into the digital file in her hand. The Future One's progress is steady. When she comes across a card she suspects doen't have a match, she turns that card diagonally. She talks to herself as she works, but Tviiloa can't make out any words beyond, 'big ones, small one, some as big as your head'. She doesn't know the meaning, but doesn't think it pertains to the test. Still, she notes it. When the Future One finishes her test at two and six half-turns. Her expression shows pleasure. "What's next?" Tviiloa retrieves the velvet bag behind her and pours the contents onto the table. It spills out twenty-seven round tiles. She taps the stack of cards and they disappear into the holoemitters. 

"Stack these tiles as high as you can. Once they fall, the test is finished." Most Future Ones dove into the task quickly. It is deceptively simple but few can get past ten tiles. This one hesitates. 

"Are there rules?" 

"Only that they do not fall." 

"Can I build them anywhere?" The Future One picks up a tile and turns it in her little hand. 

"Yes, provided it is still within the confines of this holodeck." The Future One gathers all the tiles into the bag and takes it with her to a corner of the room where she sits down. She pours all the tiles out in front of her, clears a space at the corner, and then begins stacking easily. She pushes the tiles against both corners so they all align with each other. Tviiloa's eyes widen when she places the final tile and feels around herself for more. The Future One stands up to look for any she'd sat on, but finds none. 

"I ran out." Tviiloa stops her timer and notes the placement of the tower in the digital file. 

"You used them all." She never knew a Future One to use all the tiles. She is sure some must have somewhere. "The test is complete." 

"Oh. Okay what now?" Tviiloa strides to an eye examination station. 

"I need you in this booth." She gestures. "I will examine your sight." Tviiloa proceeds to examine the Future One's sight. First both eyes, then the left, and finally the right. The Future One can state the direction of the arrow all the way down to the last line. She brings the Future One's attention to a color booklet where numbers were formed with spots in the colors the colorblind have trouble differentiating. The test finishes without an error. Tviiloa then brings her to a sound booth for sound tests. "This is the next test. Sit down and face the wall, Miral. I will put these headphones over your head and play a sound. You will tell me if the sound came from your right, left, or both by raising your hand." The Future One nods and quickly settles into her cushioned seat. On the higher sounds, the Future One hesitates to respond but her hearing is well-developed regardless. At the end of the test, she leads the Future One to the table with the ball. There is a circle on the opposing wall across from the long side of the table. Tviiloa hands the Future One the ball and explains the rules. 

"You have ten minutes to hit the center of that circle with this ball. The ball must bounce at least once on the table to count. You must stay on this side of the table but may move anywhere about the appropriate area." This is a challenging test. Not only does it test her hand-eye-coordination, it also tests her sense of physical properties and basic mechanics. Those who pass this test almost always become Treasured Ones, assuming they do well on the second Treasured Ones test. Tviiloa starts the timer. The Future One nods and experimentally squeezes the ball and then bounces the ball on the table in place in front of her. Satisfied, she starts throwing the ball toward the target. It is close: a little above and to the right. The Future One beams and quickly fetches the ball. The next three throws are off the mark but land close to her original throw. Frustrated, the Future One growls. Then her face lightens and she takes a half-step to her left and throws again. The ball lands just inside the black line. Tviiloa notes the process and time into her digital file before nodding to the Future One. 

"Seems you have a bit of your mother in you." She looks confused. "If your mother tested with us at your age, she'd no doubt have passed as you have." She nods. 

"Mommy is very good at everything." There is an element of awe to her voice. 

"Yes, well, among our kind, we would call her a Treasured One. Come along. We have two more tests. Please take a seat." Tviiloa walks to the other table to retrieve the tools and items for this next test. It is the second Treasured One test. After this there is only the command test to administer. She sets the puzzle box on the Future One's desk and the tools beside it in the prescribed manner. "This is a puzzle box. It comes apart in a number of ways. You are to disassemble one face and a reassemble it." 

"Does it matter which face I choose?" The girl picks up the box and shakes it. 

"No. It does not." She clicks the timer and settles in to watch. There isn't a time limit to this test but most finished or gave up by ten minutes. The Future One tosses the box into the air and seems to use the face that lands up as the face she'll disassemble. Tviiloa notes the action and watches at the Future One picks a tool and starts taking the face off. She lays the pieces out carefully in layers in front of the box, as if to remember where they go and in what order. When she has the puzzle stripped to the inner box that signals the end of disassembly, she shows it to Tviiloa. 

"Is this taken apart enough?" 

"It is." Tviiloa notes the time as the Future One puts it back together. Her actions are precise and soon she has the box back in seemingly working order. Tviiloa holds her hand out for the box. She flicks the lever on one side and watches the edges of the box light up. She inspects it for gaps but finds none. Treasured One indeed. She records the time and takes a seat across from the Future One. 

"The last test is verbal. I will give you situations and you will tell me how you should respond to them. Your responses will guide the next situation to a degree." The Future One nods and Tviiloa guides her through a hostile encounter. Miral concludes the situation by offering them juice and a game of her enchanted forest which they take to well. Could she be a Treasured One and a Leader One? Only the computer will tell. Tviiloa records the last of her findings and retreats for the databank at the back of the room where she uploads the findings. She turns to tell the Future One that they will now wait...forty minutes for the results. When she turns, however, the young girl is mid-transport. She presses the device behind her right ear that permits communication between crew members. 

"Leader One, the Future One is gone." 

"Gone?" His tinny voice sounds off near her ear. 

"Yes, sir. I turned around to process the results and when I looked back, she was being transported."

**Author's Note:**

> Hehehe. Where did she gooOO? No one knows. (jk I do. But I'm not telling.)
> 
> On an unrelated note... WHO is writing Miral Paris/Tom Paris? NO! I do NOT stan. There's the door. OH and don't evEN get me STARted on Chakotay/Miral. fjasfjafj;skldfajg I'm sorry if you like/write these but wow, I didn't wanna know these pairings existed.


End file.
